Chapter Twenty-Eight: Not Half
In the conference room of Building 12 of the Kennedy Space Center, seven people held a study manual that had just been sent out by NASA, and their expressions were different.
"This sixty-plus page thing is just a table of contents?" The fat man felt extremely devastated, "I want to learn basic rocket physics, aerodynamics, orbital dynamics, jet propulsion, astronomy...... I understand all of this, but what about life sciences, geology, and materials science? And I can't even understand the title of this electronic engineering, how can we learn so much in 55 days? ”
"Mind you, these are just the theoretical part." Said a boy who looked like a high school student.
"What's after that?" The fat man said in despair.
"Physical training, EVA (extravehicular walking), space disorientation training, spacesuit training, familiarization training, driving training, emergency escape training...... Anything is possible, after all, Apollo 11 was a space program fifty years ago, and to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what kind of training was in this era. The boy who looked like a high school student said, his face was not too good-looking.
He was originally the most excited one of the players, for an astronaut enthusiast, there is nothing cooler than flying into space in person, not to mention participating in one of the most important events in human history, although it is a bit of a fly in the ointment to only plant an American flag on the moon, but after all, it is only in the game, and it will not affect reality, but when he really gets the manual and remembers how much astronauts have to learn, it is difficult to laugh again.
"Circle of Destiny?" The corners of the strong man's mouth raised and a sarcastic smile appeared, "Then you should be able to go to heaven directly." ”
"Actually, there's no need to be so pessimistic," the middle-aged man who looked like an intellectual pushed the glasses on his face, "There are three positions on Apollo 11, which means that in addition to the skills that astronauts must master, each of us can purposefully give up some training, choose a main direction of attack, and complement each other......"
However, before he could finish his words, he was interrupted, and a tall, thin and listless young man spoke, "Forget it, uncle, since everyone except for the fat man over there is a solo person, it's better not to take the others for fools." ”
He yawned and said lazily, "Don't tell me you haven't noticed, that captain named William Kenhaus has a small notebook in his hand, and when each of us comes down from the multi-axis training machine, he will write something in that notebook, if nothing else, it should be to score our performance, and these scores must be related to who among us can go to Apollo 11, who will be the substitute, you make us purposefully give up some training and specialize in some training, But three sixty points add up to much higher than one eighty points. ”
The middle-aged man who looked like an intellectual pushed his glasses and said without changing his face, "I'm just providing you with a plan to increase your chances of survival after liftoff......
"That also means that we have to be able to sit in the command/service module of Apollo 11 first, right?" High school student road.
"Actually...... If we were to do the math, we still had a good chance of being selected. The middle-aged man who looked like an intellectual said lightly.
"Half to half odds, it can only be said to be a normal level." The strong man named Anthony frowned.
"Not half." The high school student seemed to think of something, and his eyes lit up.
"What?" The listless young man turned the pen in his hand.
The high school student's gaze turned to the only female player in the dungeon, who raised an eyebrow, "What?" ”
"It's a pity that you may have entered the wrong dungeon this time, if our game difficulty is hard, then this time your game difficulty is likely to be hellish."
"How so?"
"You don't know much about the United States in the sixties, do you?" The middle-aged man who looked like an intellectual smiled gently.
Marilyn Monroe, The Beatles, Bob Dylan...... Is there anything else worth mentioning in this era? The girl asked rhetorically.
"Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has gone into effect, unfortunately discrimination still exists, not only against people of color, but also for women, which is why the feminist movement was so frequent in the sixties and seventies, women were rarely allowed to join juries, and they received half the money they received from banks at half the price of men, while the interest rate was half higher."
The high school student continued, "Few people know that NASA implemented a program in 1960 to determine whether women could become astronauts, and 25 female pilots were invited to undergo the same examinations and assessments as the male astronauts of the 'Mercury' program, and 13 of them passed." ”
"What happened to them?"
"Although the 13 women received the same assessment and training as the male astronauts, they were never officially declared to be reserve astronauts, nor were they scheduled to enter the space flight, which is said to be because NASA management believed that female astronauts would waste scarce resources, distract the public from male astronauts, and have a negative public effect if they were injured or killed during the mission, so NASA terminated the training program for female astronauts in 1963."
The high school student paused, "And I have to mention that in the same year, the Soviet Union sent the first female cosmonaut of mankind, Valentina Tereshkova, into space, which can be said to be very ironic." ”
"So if I want to get on Apollo 11, not only do I have to perform well, but I also have to pray that the Captain Kenhaus who scored us and the top brass at NASA are people who are forward-looking and don't have any prejudice against women?"
"Unfortunately, I'm afraid so."
"That's terrible." The girl tried to squeeze out a somewhat reluctant smile on her face, she was already sitting very close to Zhang Heng, and after hearing this, her buttocks moved to Zhang Heng's side, and her body was almost attached to the latter's body.
"Five into three, so our luck this time is not bad." A strong man named Anthony had a smile on his face.
"This time the time is so tight, I propose that in this dungeon we live in peace, everyone depends on their abilities, and see who has the highest score in the end, who can win the main quest." After the middle-aged man who looked like an intellectual finished speaking, he looked at the only person in the room who had never spoken.
The strong man named Anthony and the high school student also moved their eyes to Zhang Heng's body, although the young man who didn't wake up didn't look back, but the pen that he had been spinning in his hand also stopped at this moment.
Zhang Heng had been sitting in the corner, quietly flipping through the study manual, and finally raised his head when he heard the words, and closed the manual in his hand, "I refuse." ”